0516 GREECE (Central Greece) - Archaeological Site of Delphi (UNESCO WHS)

Located in lower central Greece, on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis, Delphi is best known for the oracle at the sanctuary that was dedicated to Apollo after he slew the Python, a dragon who lived there and protected the navel of the Earth. Apollo's sacred precinct was a panhellenic sanctuary, where every four years, starting in 776 BC athletes from all over the Greek world competed in the Pythian Games, one of the four panhellenic games, precursors of the Modern Olympics. In the inner hestia (hearth) of the temple, an eternal flame burned. After the battle of Plataea, the Greek cities extinguished their fires and brought new fire from the hearth of Greece, at Delphi. Carved into the temple were three phrases ("know thyself", "nothing in excess", and "make a pledge and mischief is nigh"), attributed to one or more of the Seven Sages of Greece.

0515 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (Dubai) - Souk Al Bahar & Burj Khalifa

As it is written on the front of the postcard, it depicts Souk Al Bahar and Burj Khalifa in Dubai. A souk (also spelled souq, soq, souk, esouk, suk, sooq, souq, or suq) is an open-air marketplace or commercial quarter in an Arab or Berber city, by extension in any Muslim city. Historically, they were held outside of cities in the location where a caravan loaded with goods would stop, at that time, souqs being more than just a market, but also a place where they were held major festivals and many cultural and social activities. Later, due to the growth of cities, the souqs shifted to urban centers, the main souq becoming one of the central structures of a large city.

0514 UNITED STATES (Utah) - Union Pacific No. 119 and Central Pacific No. 60

On 10 May will celebrate 144 years since the Union and Central Pacific Railroads joined their rails at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, completing the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States (known originally as the Pacific Railroad and later as the Overland Route), and forged the destiny of the American nation. The ceremonial final spike, driven by Leland Stanford, was named Golden Spike, but also the Last Spike, a term used to refer to one driven at the ceremonial completion of any new railroad construction projects, particularly those in which construction is undertaken from two disparate origins towards a meeting point. Now,  the Last Spike, made of 17.6-karat (73%) copper-alloyed gold, lies in the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University. On that day, in anticipation of the ceremony, Union Pacific No. 119 (in the right of the image) and Central Pacific No. 60 (better known as the Jupiter - in the left of the image) locomotives were drawn up face-to-face on Promontory Summit. It is unknown how many people attended the event; estimates run from as low as 500 to as many as 3,000; government and railroad officials and track workers were present to witness the event.

510-513 BRAZIL - The Afro-Brazilian religions

Of the more than 193 million inhabitants of Brazil, about half describe themselves as Black (6.84%) or Brown (43.80%), i.e. have mixed ancestry, Europeans, Africans, and Amerindians. Each of these ancestors have come with their own religious beliefs, which during the Portuguese colonization were mixed, leading to the development of a diverse array of syncretistic practices. The Afro-Brazilian religions (as Umbanda, Candomblé, Batuque, Xangô, and Tambor de Mina), originally brought by black slaves shipped from Africa to Brazil, have even now many followers, concentrated mainly in large urban centers in the Northeast, such as Salvador, Recife, or Rio de Janeiro in the Southeast. These cults were persecuted throughout most of Brazilian history, because they were believed to be pagan or even satanic, but the republican government legalized all of them on the grounds of the separation between the State and the Church in 1889.

The Afro-Brazilian religions are based on the mythology, and the traditional religious and spiritual concepts and practices of the Yoruba people, one of the largest ethnic groups of Native-Africa, who occupies parts of the modern states of Nigeria, Benin and Togo. Umbanda blends African religions with Catholicism, Spiritism, and considerable indigenous lore, while the others are based in the anima (soul) of the natural environment, the rituals involving the possession of the initiated by Orishas (spirits or deities that reflects one of the manifestations of God), offerings and sacrifices of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdom, healing, dancing/trance, and percussion.

Because the religion developed semi-independently in different regions, among different ethnic groups, it evolved into several sects or nations (nações), distinguished by the set of worshiped deities, as well as the music and language used in the rituals. This division was influenced by the beneficent brotherhoods (irmandades) of Brazilian slaves organized by the Catholic Church in the 18th and 19th centuries. Candomblé temples are called houses (casas), plantations (roças), or yards (terreiros), the priesthood being organized into symbolic families. Each family owns and manages one house. In most Candomblé houses, the head of the family is a woman, the mãe-de-santo or ialorixá (mother-of-saint), seconded by the pai-de-santo or babalorixá (father-of-saint). According to Mapeamento dos Terreiros de Salvador, only in this city are 1,155 terreiros.

The Yoruba theogony enjoys a large Pantheon of Orishas, but I will mention only those who appear in my postcards:

● Xangô (Shangó, Ṣàngó, Changó, Chango, Nago Shango, Sogbo, Kibuco) - Lord of Justice; divinity of lightning, thunder, fire, sky father, represents male power and sexuality. Historically, he is a royal ancestor of the Yoruba, being the third king of the Oyo Kingdom prior to his posthumous deification.
Sincretism: Saint Jerome
Salutation: Kawô Kabiesilé
Day: Wednesday
Colors: red and white
Sign: Sagittarius
Instrument: oxé (two sided hatchet)

● Ossain (Ossaim, Ossanha, Ossanhê, Catende) - Lord of Magic Potions; the physician of African Religions, the owner of the medicinal plants, who releases the magical property of the leaves. The legend says that Oya (the god that controls the winds) shook her skirt and scattered the leaves, so other Orishas got some, but in general, they belong to Ossain. Ossain has a leg amputated, so he dances into one leg.
Sincretism: Saint Joseph (but also Saint Jude and Saint Kitts, according to other sources)
Salutation: Eu Eô (Ewé ó or Eueu)
Day: Saturday (or Thursday, according to other sources)
Colors: green and yellow, and the mixture of these, resulting a pale green
Instrument: seven iron spears with a dove on top

● Yemanjá (Yemojá, Yemonja, Yemalla, Yemana, Ymoja, Iemanjá, Janaína, Dandalunda) - Mother of the sea and the most of the other Orishas; she is the ocean, the patron deity of the fishermen and the survivors of shipwrecks, the feminine principle of creation, the spirit of moonlight, the essence of motherhood, and a protector of children.
Sincretism: Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes (Our Lady of Navigators)
Celebration (in Salvador, Bahia): December 8, the Festa da Conceição da Praia (Feast to Our Lady of Conception of the church at the beach)
Salutation: Odoiyá
Day: Friday
Colors: silver transparent, blue, and white
Instrument: Abebé (a silver fan)

● Obá (Ọba, Obbá) - Goddess of rivers, which figuratively represents the flow of time and life, but also goddess of love. She is traditionally identified as the first wife of Shango. She cutting off her ear to serve to her husband as food, because one of her co-wives has convinced her that this will secure Shango's attention. Once Shango sees the ear and realizes Obá has mutilated herself, he chases her from his house and into permanent exile.
Sincretism: Nossa Senhora das Neves (Our Lady of the Snows)
Salutation: Obá Xirê
Day: Saturday
Colors: red and white
Sign: Virgo
Instrument: spear and shield

0508 SPAIN (Canary Islands) - Puerto de la Cruz and Mount Teide

Puerto de la Cruz is the smallest town in the Canary Islands, one of Spain's 17 autonomous communities, located off the northwest coast of Africa. Situated on the north coast of Tenerife island (the largest and most populous island of the archipelago), the town attracted many tourists, especially British, since the late 19th century, due to the kindness of the climate, and to the beauty of the Valle de la Orotava. Following the attraction of the sun and beaches, around 1980 was born the tourist boom of south Tenerife, the emphasis being on cities like Arona or Adeje, but the more lush and green north of the island came back into focus in recent years.

0505 BULGARIA - The ethnographic map of the country

Located on the west coast of the Black Sea, Bulgaria occupies a portion of the eastern Balkans, with Romania to the north (the boundary being, in the most part, Danube River), Greece and Turkey to the south, and Serbia and Macedonia to the west. Its most notable topographical features are the Danubian Plain, the Balkan Mountains, the Thracian Plain, and the Rhodope Mountains. This territory was inhabited in antiquity by Thracian tribes, subjugated by Alexander the Great and later by the Roman Empire. From the 6th century, the Slavs gradually settled in the region, assimilating the Hellenised or Romanised Thracians. In the 7th century, Bulgar tribes (of central Asian Turkic origin) moved into the Balkans, and in the following centuries founded two empires (681-1018, 1185-1396), permanently squaring off the region with the Byzantine Empire. In the late 14th century, the Ottoman Turks conquered Bulgaria, possessing it until 1908.

0504 SEYCHELLES (Praslin) - Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve (UNESCO WHS)

Praslin, named like that in 1768 in honor of French diplomat César Gabriel de Choiseul, duc de Praslin, is the second largest island of the Seychelles, lying 44 km north east of Mahé. In the heart of the island is Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve, an area which was untouched until the 1930s and still retains primeval palm forest in a near-natural state, with six endemic palms, among which is Coco de Mer (Lodoicea maldivica), the sole member of the genus Lodoicea. Also unique to the park is its wildlife, including birds such as the rare Seychelles Black Parrot, mammals, crustaceans, snails, and reptiles.

0503 MOROCCO - Fantasia or Game of Gunpowder

Fantasia is a traditional equestrian performance practiced during cultural festivals in Morocco, and occurs traditionally to close Berber wedding celebrations in Maghreb. Fantasia is an imported name (adopted probably to eliminate any military tint), the actual term used being lab el baroud (game of gunpowder). The performance is inspired from historical wartime attacks of Berber, but in nowadays it's considered a cultural art and a form of martial art. It also symbolizes the strong relationship between the man and the horse (very important in Arab countries), as well as the attachment to tradition.

0502 MALAYSIA (Sabah) - Kinabalu Park (UNESCO WHS)

A long time ago, a Chinese prince was cast away to Borneo when his ship sank, and was rescued by the natives. When he recovered, he become one of the people of the village and married a local woman. After some years, he started to feel homesick, so asked the permission from his newly family to visit his parents. In China he was very welcomed, but his parents told him that he was betrothed to a princess of a neighbouring kingdom. Having no choice, he obeyed with a heavy heart. Meanwhile, his wife waiting him with baited breath, and, because the village was situated far away from the coast, she climb to the highest mountain nearby at every sunrise, to see the ships sailing in the South China Sea. After a while, she fell ill and died waiting. The mountain's spirit, impressed by her loyalty, turned her into a stone which face the South China Sea, to could wait forever her husband's return. Also impressed, the people decided to name the mountain Kinabalu (Cina Balu means "A Chinese Widow").

0366 & 0501 AUSTRALIA - Australasian Antarctic Expedition

The summer of 1911-1912 was certainly the most dramatic and perhaps the most tragic of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, due to the race between Amundsen and Scott, concluded in favor of the Norwegian, who reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911. The British reached also to the pole, but after more than a month, on 17 January 1912, and he died on the way back. During the same period were conducted another two expeditions to the continent, Second German Antarctic Expedition, led by Wilhelm Filchner, and Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE), led by Douglas Mawson.

The only one of them with a substantial scientific program was that of Mawson, even if neither he wasn't lacked of national pride, as he will recognize in The Home of the Blizzard, book published in 1915: "For many reasons, besides the fact that it was the country of my home and Alma Mater, I was desirous that the Expedition should be maintained by Australia. It seemed to me that here was an opportunity to prove that the young men of a young country could rise to those traditions which have made the history of British Polar exploration one of triumphant endeavour as well as of tragic sacrifice. And so I was privileged to rally the sons of the younger son."

0500 ERITREA - A Kunama woman from Barentu

Located in the Horn of Africa, Eritrea exists as independent state, in its present form, since 1993, when it separated from Ethiopia, after a 30-year war. It’s a multi-ethnic country, with nine recognized ethnic groups, of which the most numerous are Tigrinya (55%) and Tigre (30%). The fourth in terms of the population is Kunama, but with only 2%, that means about 225,000 inhabitants (are also 21.000 in Sudan and 5,400 in Ethiopia). Most of them live in the isolated area between the Gash and Setit rivers (the "breadbasket of Eritrea"), near the border with Ethiopia.

0401 & 0499 ROMANIA (Mureş) - Historic Centre of Sighişoara (UNESCO WHS)

Sighişoara at the beginning of the 20th century

Posted on 01.12.2012 and completed on 07.02.2013
Because today is the National Day of Romania (Great Union Day - December 1, 1918, the Union of Transylvania with Romania) I post a postcard from Sighişoara, a city located in Transylvania. Historic Centre of Sighişoara, "a fine example of a small, fortified medieval town which played an important strategic and commercial role on the fringes of central Europe for several centuries", was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.

After they settled in the Pannonian Basin at the end of 9th century, Hungarians conquered large territories in Central Europe. Defeated in the Battle of Lechfeld (955), they stopped definitively the westward expansion, concentrating eastward (Transylvania) and southward (Balkan Peninsula). So, in 1003, Stephen I established the control over Transylvania, which became a voivodeship in the Kingdom of Hungary. During the 12th century, the King of Hungary invited the Saxons (later known as Transylvanian Saxons) to settle in Transylvania and defend the frontier of his realm. A wise decision, because in the next centuries the Saxons will have a very important role in the region, not only militarily, but also economically and socially. Actually the German name of Transylvania, Siebenbürgen, means "seven fortresses", and refers to the seven Saxons' cities in the region (in parentheses are the Romanian names): Mediasch (Mediaş), Muhlenbach (Sebeş), Hermannstadt (Sibiu), Clausenburg (Cluj-Napoca), Schässburg (Sighişoara), Reussmarkt (Miercurea Sibiului) and Broos (Orăştie). To these were subsequently added two others, Bistritz (Bistriţa) and Kronstadt (Braşov)

It seems that the settlement was founded in 1178, and a document of 1280 records a town built on the site of a Roman fort as Castrum Sex. By 1337 it became a royal center for the kings, who awarded the settlement urban status in 1367 as the Civitas de Segusvar. The first document listing the city's Romanian name, Sighişoara, was issued in 1431 by the Wallachian prince Vlad Dracul (father of Vlad the Impaler), who lived in exile in the town. The city played an important strategic and commercial role at the edges of Central Europe for several centuries. The German artisans and craftsmen dominated the urban economy, being estimated that during the 16th and the 17th centuries Sighişoara had as many as 15 guilds and 20 handicraft branches. The most important guilds built a specific area of the 930 m of the wall of the city, raising one defense tower: Clock Tower (Turnul cu ceas), Blacksmiths' Tower (Turnul Fierarilor), Butchers' Tower (Turnul Măcelarilor), Cobblers' Tower (Turnul Cizmarilor), Furriers' Tower (Turnul Cojocarilor), Ropemakers' Tower (Turnul Frânghierilor), Tailors' Tower (Turnul Croitorilor), Tanners' Tower (Turnul Tăbăcarilor) and Tinsmiths' Tower (Turnul Cositorilor).

Sighişoara at the middle of the 18th century

In nowadays Sighişoara is considered to be the most beautiful and well preserved inhabited citadel in Europe, with an authentic medieval architecture. In Eastern Europe, Sighişoara is one of the few fortified towns which are still inhabited. The houses inside Sighişoara Citadel show the main features of a craftsmen's town. However, there are some houses which belonged to the former patriciate, like the Venetian House and the House with Antlers.

0498 MEXICO (Coahuila) - The Cathedral in Saltillo

Founded in 1577 by Spanish colonists, Saltillo is the oldest post-conquest settlement in northern Mexico. In 1824, the city was made the capital of the State of Coahuila y Tejas and included the area which is now the US State of Texas, and now is the capital of the Mexican state of Coahuila. It received various nicknames throughout the years, among which Las Atenas de Mexico (the Athens of Mexico), due to the great thinkers that it has given to the country, La Ciudad del Clima Ideal (The City of Perfect Climate), and La Tierra del Sarape (the Land of the Serape), since the Serape, one of the most representative and well-known articles of clothing from Mexico, originated here.

0009, 0496 AUSTRIA (Vienna) - Historic Centre of Vienna (UNESCO WHS)

Founded by the Celts 2,500 years ago, on the Danube river, Vienna was, in turn, municipium (Vindobona) and headquarters of the Legion X Gemina under Romans, capital of the Babenberg dynasty, of the Habsburg dynasty and of the Austrian Empire (became Austria-Hungary in 1867), because after WWI to become the capital of the new republic Österreich (with a break between 1938 and 1945, when Austria was occupied by the Germans). In 2001, Historic Centre of Vienna was designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Currently Vienna has about 1.7 million inhabitants and is considered, according to Economist Intelligence Unit, the city first (in a tie with Vancouver, Canada) for quality of life, but also for the culture of innovation. All EIU rated it, in 2011, as the second best city in which to live. Impressive, what to say. The postcard 0009 contains six buildings:

0067 & 0495 CROATIA (Primorje-Gorski Kotar) - Opatija, a destination for crowned heads

Posted on 11.12.2011 and completed on 04.02.2013
I always liked the story that says that during the Argonauts, the Danube ramify at a time, one arm emptying, as in nowdays, into the Black Sea, and the other into the Adriatic Sea, near the actual city Trieste. Unfortunately, theory has no other support than the folktales, the fact that to the mouth where the Danube flows into the Black Sea there was a Greek city called Histria, just like the peninsula located on the Adriatic seashore, plus the Istro-Romanians (who still live in this peninsula), very close relatives of the Romanians who live on the north of Danube. Too bad, because it was a nice story.

The small Istria peninsula, as actually the whole large Balkan Peninsula of which it belongs, was ceded, conquered, exploited, taken over, splited, controlled, disputed along the history (in a somewhat chronological order) by Romans, Goths, Avars, Byzantines, Croats, Lombards, Franks, Bavarians, Venetian, Serbs, Austrians, French, Hungarian, Italians and Croats again. Panslavist ideas awakened among the South Slavs in the 19th century haven't fructified until after WWI, together with the creation of the state to be called then Yugoslavia, because the divergent interests of the powers that made the games in the area (respectively Austro-Hungary, Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, with France, England and Germany in the second plan). But Istria belonged to Italy between 1920 and 1947, when it was incorporated into Yugoslavia, and after its dissolution in 1991 the peninsula became part of Croatia.

Opatija, geographically belonging to Istrian peninsula, is a town of about 8,000 inhabitants, situated in the Kvarner Gulf, at 13 km southwest from Rijeka (former Fiume under the italians), right under Mount Učka (one of the nature parks of Croatia). In 1844, Iginio Scarpa, a rich merchant from Rijeka, founded Villa Angiolina, which houses in nowadays the Croatian Museum of Tourism. First hotel ever on the Adriatic (Grand Hotel Kvarner) was built in 1884 and soon after, 12 km long promenade Lungomare was built along coast of Volosko, Opatija and Lovran.

Surrounded by beautiful woods of bay laurel, and with a sea-coast rocky and picturesque, Opatija became in the second half of the 19th century and in the beginning of the next a fashionable destination for the Austrian imperial family and Austrian nobility, emperor Franz Joseph I used to spend several months here during the winter. Also the town was visited by the then most prominent personalities: Princess Louise von Saxe-Coburg, the Romanian King Carol I, the Swedish-Norwegian King Oscar, Count Franz Graf von Meran and celebrities like Isadora Duncan and her lovers or composer Gustav Mahler.

0494 BULGARIA (Stara Zagora) - Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak (UNESCO WHS)

I don't think that I wrong if I say that people in wide world know much fewer things about Thracians than about Greeks, Romans, Celts or Germanic tribes, although Herodotus wrote about them in the Fifth Book of his Histories (called Terpsichore) that "the Thracian race is the most numerous, except the Indians, in all the world: and if it should come to be ruled over by one man, or to agree together in one, it would be irresistible in fight and the strongest by far of all nations, in my opinion."

0493 ROMANIA - The administrative map of Transylvania in 1886

In this postcard is shown the administrative map of Transylvania in 1886, as stated on it in Hungarian, German and English. If the etymology of the name Transylvania is clear (the Latin terra ultra silva - land beyond the forest), as also the German Siebenbürgen (Seven fortresses - after the seven Transylvanian Saxons cities in the region), that of Erdély (in Hungarian) / Ardeal (in Romanian) is not fully elucidated. The two main theories supporting one a pathway based on the Hungarian erdő elv (erdő elő) - Erdeuelu - Erdély - Ardeliu - Ardeal, and the other one the Indo-European root Ard - Ardeliu - Erdély. Anyway, even since the Middle Ages prevailed the name Transylvania, primarily because Latin was the language of chancery.

0492 NETHERLANDS (Netherlands / Overijssel) - The Foal from Museum Buurt Spoorweg

In a previous post I wrote about the Museum Buurt Spoorweg (MBS), a railway museum located in Haaksbergen. The locomotive in the picture (named simply Locomotive 2) is also hosted in this museum and was manufactured in 1926 by Société pour l'Exploitation des Etablissements John Cockerill, based in Seraing, in the region of Liege.